A great effort has been made to structurally characterize agar and agarose in view of the ubiquitous use in molecular biology, microbiology and biotechnology. Studies had revealed that agar is formed by a mixture of at least two fractions, agarose and agaropectin. Agarose, the predominant component of agar, is a linear polymer. It is a disaccharide made up of D-galactose and 3, 6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose. Agaropectin is a heterogeneous mixture of smaller molecules that occur in lesser amounts, and is made up of alternating units of D-galactose and L-galactose heavily modified with acidic side-groups, such as sulfate and pyruvate. Agar exhibits hysteresis, melting at 85° C. (358 K, 185° F.) and solidifying from 32-40° C. (305-313 K, 90-104° F.). This property lends a suitable balance between easy melting and good gel stability at relatively high temperatures. Since many scientific applications require incubation at temperatures close to human body temperature (37° C.), agar is more appropriate than other solidifying agents that melt at this temperature, such as gelatin.